A model of the relations between risk perception and self-reported safety activity

Abstract

A hypothetical model based on theories on stress, coping and motivation, describing the associations between risk perception and self reported safety activity, was tested. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used for the analysis of data from a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of 315 randomly selected Swedish farmers and farm workers. The results lent support for a model where the effects of risk perception on safety activity were mediated by two parallel paths, job stress and risk manageability. These two mediating mechanisms balanced each other out so that no direct influence of risk perception on safety activity was found. The results therefore suggest that, to increase and prioritize safety activity, efforts should be made to increase perceived risk manageability, supporting safety solutions simultaneously with efforts to reduce felt stress. Interventions focusing solely on risk perception, such as giving information about the negative consequences of risks, may result in little positive effect on safety activity.